A little inattention goes a long way

[Rick Murchison]

On my last outing to the Gulf, on the first dive, I was enjoying very much having no students along for a change, diving with the Lovely Young Kat and our daughters. It is a special delight to see the girls finding fascinating critters and excitedly showing them to each other and to us.
Even though I had no students, out of habit I made a "final sweep" of the site before ascending, and saw two divers from our boat at about 70' heading up the anchor line of a second boat tied into the site... so, being the helpful fellow that I am, I went to them and signalled this was the wrong line, and pointed in the direction of ours, which was tied to the other end of the wreck, about 50 yards away. I also out of habit checked their gauges...
Great Zot!
While one diver was just fine, with 900 psi, the other had 263 psi and 12 minutes decompression obligation on his computer - and was totally oblivious to both. Grabbing him firmly by the arm, and handing him my long hose, I led him back to our anchor line while making a one minute stop at 40' and a gentle ascent to 15. Still not realizing what his computer was telling him, this rocket scientist signalled me it was time to ascend after 3 minutes at 15... still had 9 to go with a 10' ceiling on his computer. Had to write him a note on my slate to explain why I wouldn't let him ascend.
-----
Now for the bad part... I happen to know this fellow was trained to know both how to plan dives, how to read what his computer was telling him, and had great emphasis placed on monitoring time, depth and gas supply during his training. I know he made 100% on his OW exam and 100% on his tables exam (the shop where he trained gives an extra tables exam). I know his in water skills are flawless, and that he has excellent buoyancy control. I know all this because he was one of my own students!
AAAaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!
You can lead a horse to water...
Rick

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Geez, that does suck Rick. Hope you made him buy you a beer and lead the post-dive debrief that no doubt took place at some point following the trip home. Also hope it became somewhat pointed and forceful before it was over!

(Have you showed him how to read his computer yet? Or just confiscated it?)

 

[Rick Murchison]

Luckily this fellow is also conscientious after-the-fact and is telling all his diving circle about his little misadventure as an example how not to do it. His diving complacency is now over.
He already knew how to read the computer - he just wasn't doing it!
Rick

 

[cdiver2]

On my last outing to the Gulf, on the first dive, I was enjoying very much having no students along for a change, diving with the Lovely Young Kat and our daughters. It is a special delight to see the girls finding fascinating critters and excitedly showing them to each other and to us.
Even though I had no students, out of habit I made a "final sweep" of the site before ascending, and saw two divers from our boat at about 70' heading up the anchor line of a second boat tied into the site... so, being the helpful fellow that I am, I went to them and signalled this was the wrong line, and pointed in the direction of ours, which was tied to the other end of the wreck, about 50 yards away. I also out of habit checked their gauges...
Great Zot!
While one diver was just fine, with 900 psi, the other had 263 psi and 12 minutes decompression obligation on his computer - and was totally oblivious to both. Grabbing him firmly by the arm, and handing him my long hose, I led him back to our anchor line while making a one minute stop at 40' and a gentle ascent to 15. Still not realizing what his computer was telling him, this rocket scientist signalled me it was time to ascend after 3 minutes at 15... still had 9 to go with a 10' ceiling on his computer. Had to write him a note on my slate to explain why I wouldn't let him ascend.
-----
Now for the bad part... I happen to know this fellow was trained to know both how to plan dives, how to read what his computer was telling him, and had great emphasis placed on monitoring time, depth and gas supply during his training. I know he made 100% on his OW exam and 100% on his tables exam (the shop where he trained gives an extra tables exam). I know his in water skills are flawless, and that he has excellent buoyancy control. I know all this because he was one of my own students!
AAAaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!
You can lead a horse to water...
Rick

Lucky guy as you say you can lead but ?. What grade/ experience is he, anything there to save some face.

 

[Mako Mark]

Good story Rick. I think he was very lucky to have you there. I know what it feels like to have people you have trained well, seem to completely revert to novice-ness afterwards.

Did he say why he was so distracted/oblivious of his gas/deco status?

 

[Web Monkey]

Maybe he had been taking Spare-Air lessons, and learned how to make 2 Cu Ft of air last 15 minutes?

Terry

While one diver was just fine, with 900 psi, the other had 263 psi and 12 minutes decompression obligation on his computer

 

[TCDiver1]

You can lead a horse to water...
Rick

Interesting sidenote to this story. If the casual observer (diver) saw this, they would most likely be inclined to believe you did a lousy job teaching this diver the basics. As you noted, nothing could be further from the truth.

It just reaffirms that you can have the best training and preparation possible and it doesn't change the fact that in the end, you and your buddy, are 100% responsible for your own dive.

No doubt the guy was lucky you were there and attentive to that dive. Glad he learned something from the mistake, that is the really important part.

 

[Iruka]

About the same thing I was going to say....sometimes other instructors see an inept diver and assume it's the instructor's fault, or say "that must be a (insert name of whatever certifying organization you happen not to like that day here) diver," but I know that once the class is over, divers often don't retain what you've taught them, especially those who only dive a couple times per year on tropical vacations. Anyhow, good job in turning a potentially dangerous situation into a mere nuisance/teaching opportunity.

Chris
www.letsdiveguam.com

 

[MikeFerrara]

Interesting sidenote to this story. If the casual observer (diver) saw this, they would most likely be inclined to believe you did a lousy job teaching this diver the basics. As you noted, nothing could be further from the truth.

It just reaffirms that you can have the best training and preparation possible and it doesn't change the fact that in the end, you and your buddy, are 100% responsible for your own dive.

No doubt the guy was lucky you were there and attentive to that dive. Glad he learned something from the mistake, that is the really important part.

I don't think any one ever doubted that you could have a great instructor doing a great job and yet an individual could become a "bad" diver after training.

However better instruction brings up the mean making for less "bad" ones and a better average.

An individual diver is absolutely responsible for making "good" decisions within the bounds of what he believes "good" to be. If we as instructors or as an industry provide an inadequate or faulty definition of "good" don't we have some responsibility or is the diver responsible for what we didn't tell him?

 

[crpntr133]

Somewhat reminds me of a student diver I saw this past weekend. It was the 4th OW cert.dive and there were about 10 in the class. Everybody bailed out of their cars and started setting up their gear. The instructor walked around and took a look at everybodies rig. We watched this one young lady having problems figuring out which way her 1st stage went on the tank ( I do have to admit that I did it wrong one or twice but after that I was on it). Now comes the good part. The instructor told her to take her rig apart and start over. Needless to say she got it right.